Certain campus resources are inaccessible from off campus unless a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is used to establish a secure connection. Access to the university VPN is done via a supported web browser by pointing it to vpn.valpo.edu. 

Browser Requirements

The following Web browsers are supported for the SSL VPN Virtual Office portal:

• Internet Explorer 8.0+, 9.0+
• Firefox 4.0+, 5.0+
• Safari 5.0+
• Chrome 11.0+, 12.0+

To login, point your browser to this URL: vpn.valpo.edu

Upon successfully logging in, you will be presented with the following screen:

The VPN has two methods of access, Bookmarks and NetExtender. Bookmarks are designed to provide access to individual resources (similar to browser bookmarks), while NetExtender provides full network access, as if being on the campus network. As an example, the Valpo Intra website bookmark provides a way to connect to resources like Campus Chronicle without the burden of multiple logins. The first time the NetExtender box is clicked, the application installer is launched. Once installed, it will run as a background process in either Windows or Mac OS. Therefore there is no longer a need to first login through the web page.

NetExtender Prerequisites for Windows Clients

1. One of the following platforms:
   1. Windows 7 SP 1
   2. Windows Vista SP 2 (32-bit & 64-bit)
   3. Windows XP Home or Professional, Windows XP SP 3
   4. Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2003 Server
2. One of the following browsers:
   1. Internet Explorer 8.0 and higher
   2. Mozilla Firefox 4.0 and higher
   3. Google Chrome 11.0 and higher
3. Administrator privileges on the computer
4. In Internet Explorer, downloading and running scripted ActiveX files must be enabled.

NetExtender Prerequisites for Mac OS Clients

1. Mac OS 10.5 and higher
2. Java 1.5 and higher
3. Both PowerPC and Intel Macs are supported

NetExtender Prerequisites for Linux Clients

Linux 32-bit or 64-bit clients are supported for NetExtender when running one of the following distributions:

1. Linux Fedora Core 13 or higher, Ubuntu 10.04 or higher, or OpenSUSE 10.3 or higher
2. Sun Java 1.4 and higher is required for using the NetExtender GUI

Note: Open source Java Virtual Machines (VMs) are not currently supported. If you do not have Sun Java 1.5 or higher, you can use the command-line interface version of NetExtender.

NetExtender Prerequisites for Windows Mobile Clients

NetExtender supports the following Windows Mobile platforms:

• Windows Mobile 5 PocketPC version
• Windows Mobile 6 Professional/Classic version

Windows Mobile 5 Smart Phone version and Windows Mobile 6 Standard version are not currently supported.

NetExtender Prerequisites for Android Smartphone Clients

Important Note: Only rooted devices are supported for NetExtender Android in SonicWALL SSL VPN. Therefore the Valpo IT department recommends against its use.

Warning: Rooting your phone may void your warranty. Consult your contract or User’s Guide, or call your service provider for more information.

The NetExtender Android client is supported on rooted smartphones running 1.6 or higher of the Android operating system.

The rooting requirement is due to limitations and restrictions of the Android platform. A VPN client like NetExtender requires root level permission for certain necessary OS level operations. Until a future version of the Android OS provides a flexible API to do these operations without root access, the rooting requirement will remain.

As new features are added, users must install the updated client to access all the features supported by the new firmware. Likewise, if a new client is used with older firmware, some client features may not be functional. For best results, the latest firmware should always be used with the latest client.